St. Mawes, a decayed port on the east coast of Falmouth Bay in the south-west of the county, had one main street of houses fronting the sea, on the north side of the harbour, which were mostly inhabited by fishermen engaged in the declining pilchard fishery. Oldfield, Rep. Hist. (1816), iii. 231; Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1830), 166; S. Lewis, Topographical Dict. of England (1831), iii. 272. The borough comprised the manor of St. Mawes, which formed part of the parish of St. Just.
Hindon, which in 1820 was described by William Hazlitt as ‘a dreary spot’, was a chapelry of the parish of East Knoyle, in the hundred of Downton. An inconsiderable market town, it had lost most of its cloth industry by that time, but its inns still benefited from the considerable through traffic.Complete Works of Hazlitt ed. P.P. Howe, xviii. 368; Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1830), 801; VCH Wilts. iv. 178-9; xi. 98, 100, 102; N. Sheard, Short Hist.
Droitwich, an ancient market town ‘celebrated from the earliest times for its salt springs’ or ‘wiches’, produced ‘the finest and whitest salt in the kingdom’; but the municipal corporation commissioners reported that although trade had ‘very much increased’ since the repeal of the salt duty, the town ‘did not appear to be much increasing in wealth or extent’, it ‘requiring but few hands to manage the process’.Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1828-9), 860; Lascelles’ Worcs. Dir. (1851), 135; PP (1831-2), xl. 127; (1835) xxiii.
Lewes, a market town situated on the banks of the River Ouse, on the edge of the South Downs in the east of the county, several miles north-east of Brighton, ‘increased considerably in size and importance’ during the early-nineteenth century and laid claim to be the county town. It was described in 1823 as being ‘well built’, with ‘handsome streets and two fair suburbs’. Trade in agricultural products continued to be the mainstay of the local economy and there was little manufacturing, apart from several breweries and one paper mill. Pigot’s Commercial Dir.
Saltash, a small port and market town on the south-eastern border of the county, about five miles from Plymouth, was situated on a ‘bold and commanding headland’ at the junction of the Rivers Lynher and Tamar. It consisted of three ‘narrow’ streets and the houses, though many bore ‘marks of great antiquity’, were ‘indifferently built’. Most of the inhabitants were fishermen or employees of the Devonport dockyard.
Bury, the assize town and commercial and social centre for west Suffolk, was considered ‘entirely dependent on its residents and the nobility, gentry and agriculturists of the neighbourhood’ for its prosperity. S. Tymms, Handbk. of Bury St. Edmunds (1854), pp. vii-x. Their largesse and the Members’ generosity facilitated the construction of assembly rooms (1804), a theatre (1819), a refurbished corn exchange (1820), botanic gardens (1821, 1831), gas works (1824), Suffolk General Hospital (1825) and improvements to churches and Nonconformist chapels.
Enniskillen, the county town of Fermanagh, was located on an island in a narrow section of Lough Erne, ‘Ireland’s Windermere’, and extended into suburbs on the eastern and western banks, which lay in the parishes of Enniskillen and Rossory respectively.
Reigate, a ‘small but remarkably neat’ market town, was situated on a branch of the River Mole, in the east of county, on the London to Brighton road. Apart from its ‘thoroughfare importance’, it was ‘a place of but little trade’ and there were ‘no manufactures’. However, it was reported in 1831 that the town contained a disproportionately large number of gentlemen’s residences. Ibid. 35-37; Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1832-4), 990, 991. The borough covered only a small area, about 65 acres, at the centre of the parish, the remainder of which was known as ‘the foreign’.
Tregony, a once flourishing seaport and market town, situated on the ‘main arm’ of the River Fal about seven miles south-east of Truro, had been ‘reduced ... to abject poverty’ by the eighteenth century as the river had silted up and the tide no longer reached the harbour. A large woollen cloth manufactory had ‘long since been abandoned’ and the market was ‘very small’, owing to competition from Truro and St. Austell. The population consisted ‘chiefly of the labouring poor’, who were ‘almost exclusively employed in agriculture’, and many of the houses were ‘small and wretched’. S.
Plymouth, ‘one of the largest seaports in England’, was the easternmost of three adjoining towns situated on a peninsula between the Plym and Tamar estuaries, where they entered the English Channel. On the west bank was Plymouth Dock, renamed Devonport in 1824, the site of a major naval base and dockyard, which had grown spectacularly during the eighteenth century so that by 1801 its population exceeded that of Plymouth.
